Restine: What Republican stewardship has done for Texas

In November 1994, the Republican Party began taking over management of Texas by electing George W. Bush - and by the January 2003 inaugural the party was in full control of the state government, winning all statewide offices.

In other words, Republicans became fully responsible for both collecting and spending funds for the state. What has this management done for proud Texans in the past 10 years?

Texas ranks fourth in the percentage of children living in poverty and has the greatest percentage of adults and children without health insurance. No other state spends less than we do for mental health services per capita. Our graduation rate is just 6 percent, putting us in 43rd place among the states. Texas teachers rank 34th in public school teacher pay, 15 percent below the national average. Even former first lady Barbara Bush wrote that "Texas students rank in the bottom 10 percent in math and literacy nationally." Our state unemployment rate is 8 percent, approaching that of the national average of 9 percent. Texans pay the highest home insurance in the United States.

This is what Republican stewardship has given Texans, long before the state began its budget crisis.

What's more, over this 10-year Republican management, we have a $27 billion deficit in our state budget! Granted we hit a rough spot with the recession, but obviously, our leaders have had no vision and forward looking planning and leadership.

With this record, Texans re-elected Gov. Rick Perry for a third full term, and increased the power of Republicans in Congress. While the governor was campaigning, he said his conservative decisions have resulted in a boon to the state, and that "Today, we have billions in surplus." Perry enjoyed bragging about how our Republican management balanced the state budget in fiscal 2010, not mentioning Texas used $6.6 billion to plug nearly 97 percent of its shortfall with Recovery Act money from the U.S. government, and $5.6 billion in one-time state funds.

Nevada and New Jersey are the only two states that have a greater shortfall as a percentage of their budget (Nevada, 45.2 percent and New Jersey, 37.4 percent) with Texas coming in third at 31.5 percent. All the others have a smaller budget shortage! Perry said, "Texas is better off than practically any state in the country." Any tax increases have been ruled out by our Republican managers.

How are Republican managers of our state planning to cover our $27 billion deficit that has shown up on their watch? Their response has been House Bill 1. First, the Texas House Appropriations Committee approved cutting $8 billion from education and $4 billion from Medicaid; reduced funding for care of the disabled; reduced the funding rate for state employees retirement from 6.9 to 6 percent and teachers from 6.4 to 6 percent; canceled $6.7 million from a program for services for children with autism; cut Medicaid rates for nursing homes by 10 percent, even though Texas is 49th in funding; could cause colleges and universities to increase tuition rates as much as $1,000 for full-time college students by cutting education funds; cut 10 percent from Medicaid reimbursement to the Children's Health Insurance Program; and eliminated funding for background checks of school employees - and this is only the short list!

The Republican position is that nobody should ever pay higher taxes; Republican management could close tax loopholes and subsidies given to major contributors.

Texans who have voted and kept in office the Republican Party that has managed our state for the past 10 years can now watch as our great state falls farther behind with undereducated children, poorer health care, care for our old folks, the disabled, and those in need.

"It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped," said one of my favorite liberals, Hubert Humphrey. Perry paraphrased this in his last inaugural saying, "As Texans, we always take care of the least among our population - the frail, the young, the elderly. The people on fixed income. Those in situations of abuse and neglect. They can count on the people of Texas to be there for them. We're going to protect them, empower them."

By cutting their funding?

If those who voted for the current governor and current Republican managers are satisfied with the state of our state, they deserve the government they are getting.

Or, as Albert Einstein said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

Jim Restine is an Amarillo resident and is a retired educator and social services case worker.